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Sunday, 6 August 2017

Miss Austen's Cautionary Tales by Val Tyler

Jane Austen primarily wrote
love stories about women of good sense and principal, falling in love with men
of good character; but the more
I read her books, the more I wonder if she had another purpose.

Miss Austen often
has a subplot or backstory about a man who entices a young lady to run away
with him. He may do this simply for his own amusement or vanity, or for financial gain,
but he never considers the consequences that will befall the lady.

In Pride
and Prejudice there is a backstory about George Wickham trying to, and very
nearly succeeding in, seducing fifteen year-old Georgiana Darcy. Fortunately
for Georgiana, her brother, Mr Darcy, has a great deal of sense and influence
and is able to save her, thus denying Wickham her £30,000 that had been his
object. If he had succeeded there would have been no alternative but to make poor
Georgiana marry the womanising and profligate Wentworth, as Lydia Bennett did some
time later.

Lydia Bennett and George Wickham:BBC

Wickham ran off
with Lydia for his own amusement. This selfish act opened her up to malicious
gossip and precluded her from decent society. The only course of action was for Lydia to marry Wickham as quickly as possible, and this she
willingly did. Even so, they were a tainted couple and Lydia’s life became less
than enviable. ‘Their manner of living…
was unsettled in the extreme. They were always moving from place to place in
quest of a cheap situation, and always spending more than they ought. His
affection for her soon sunk into indifference; hers lasted a little longer…’

In Sense and Sensibility, John Willoughby is
introduced to the reader as a Knight in Shining Armour, rescuing the injured
Marianne Dashwood from a wet and uncomfortable hillside. As the story unfolds, the
reader begins to notice his lack of judgement. He encourages Marianne to be imprudent and we begin to realise that Mr Willoughby is not
quite the gentleman we originally took him for. Marianne does not have direct male
protection and her mother does not have the good sense of her sister, Elinor.

Marianne Dashwood and John Willoughby:BBC

Eventually, Colonel
Brandon relates to Elinor the treatment of his ward at the hands of Willoughby who, some time before, had had taken sixteen year-old Eliza away from the protection Colonel Brandon
had secured for her, seduced the poor girl and, to use Brandon’s words, left her ‘in
a situation of the utmost distress, with no creditable home, no help, no
friends, ignorant of his address! He had left her, promising to return; he
neither returned, nor wrote, nor relieved her.’

Colonel Brandon did not force Willoughby to marry Eliza, it was too late for that and, illegitimate
as she was, Eliza has little value in society as we see in Emma with Harriet Smith. Willoughby is not even expected to provide
for, or even acknowledge, his child.

In Mansfield Park, Maria Rushworth is a
well-connected and wealthy married woman with male protection and an enviable
place in society. She throws all this away when she runs off with Henry
Crawford. He soon tires of her and her family are left with the problem of what
to do with a disgraced woman. There is no way she can return to her former home
and husband, and it is decided that she and her unpleasant Aunt Norris are to
be found an ‘establishment… in another
country, remote and private, where, shut up together with little society, on
one side no affection, on the other no judgement, it may be reasonably supposed
that their tempers became their mutual punishment.’

Henry Crawford and Maria Rushworth:BBC

Miss Austen seldom
comments on the rights and wrongs of society, but she verges on criticism when
she says that, ‘...the public punishment
of disgrace...’ is ‘in this world …less
equal than could be wished…’

Unfair and boring
though Maria’s punishment may have been, the fate of Colonel Brandon’s first
love, the mother of Eliza, turned out to be tragic. Rich and well-connected
though she had been, she left her loveless and miserable marriage to be with the man she loved. Her husband divorced her and, deserted by her lover and penniless (a
woman’s wealth automatically passed to her husband when she married), she had
no place in society. Thus, she was passed from man to man and when Colonel
Brandon eventually returned to England and found her, he describes how she was,
‘So altered – so faded – worn down by
acute suffering of every kind! hardly could I believe the melancholy and sickly
figure before me, to see the remains of the lovely, blooming, healthful girl,
on whom I had once doted…’

It is noticeable that he ‘had once doted’ on her and, excellent man though he is, Brandon had no inclination to marry her and give
Eliza a name. He is a kind man and did all any man with a
good name could be expected to do; he provided for them. The mother was ‘in the last stage of a consumption’. He
thought that ‘life could do nothing for
her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death…’ Disgraced as
she was, she was better off dead. Surely any female reader would sit up and
take note.

In Northanger Abbey, Miss Austen is not explicit as to what happens
between Isabella Thorpe and Captain Frederick Tilney, but society judges
Isabella because she has allowed his attentions while being engaged to another
man. She is disgraced and her friends, the Mitchells, are shocked to see her
out in public. Shamed girls should be hidden away, and poor Isabella had no
money to cushion the blow.

Isabella Thorpe and Captain Tilney:ITV

I wonder why Miss Austen entwined such plots in her charming stories
about manners and love and I suggest she was doing so for more than
entertainment. There is little doubt that gossip can be delicious and people
like to ooh and ah at the misfortunes of others, but I wonder if Miss Austen’s
aim was to help young, innocent or bored ladies to understand the importance of
protecting their reputation.

I do not suggest this was her prime motivation, but I do suggest she
might have wanted her books not only to interest her reader, but to alert
ladies to a certain kind of man who might not be trusted; especially young
women who might be romantically inclined, but naïve. Her tales are witty and
interesting, but they also demonstrate how everything can go desperately wrong.
Women had to be careful. Only the very fortunate, and here I am thinking of
Marianne Dashwood who had Colonel Brandon to make her respectable after tongues
had wagged about her very unflatteringly. Fortunately for Marianne, she had
stayed the right side of propriety and, consequently, could be accepted
not only by Brandon, but by society if a man like the Colonel married her; which,
of course, he did.

I like to think Miss Austen wove cautionary tales into her stories to
remind women that a dalliance simply would not be worth the excitement.